I write with regret for UVM but great excitement for our colleague and friend to share that Chief Information Officer Simeon Ananou has been appointed Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at Stony Brook University in New York. While Simeon is departing UVM, his impact at the university will remain with us for years to come.

Simeon’s time as CIO was transformational. Over the past five years, he positioned IT as a significant strategic asset in advancing the university’s goals. Under his leadership, Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) embraced transformational change that helped the university keep pace with rapidly advancing technology and ever-increasing need for comprehensive solutions.

Simeon was ever committed to effective partnership; he worked cooperatively with academic units and departments across campus, including human resources, finance, student registration, facilities management, UVM Extension and many more.

Simeon’s thoughtful approach to problem-solving helped shepherd UVM through the challenges of the COVID pandemic, as he collaborated with the campus community to orchestrate the transition to telework and remote instruction. He led the migration of the university’s outdated Learning Management System from Blackboard to Brightspace and facilitated the implementation of improved classroom resources including expanded high-performance computing, increased hardware inventories and better network connectivity via more than 360 new wireless access points in 50 buildings across campus. He partnered with the academic deans to successfully transition all academic units to a centralized institutional IT issue-tracking system, and he collaborated with the Office of Research and leading faculty to expand UVM's research computing capacity from one supercomputer to four.

With a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, Simeon oversaw the roll-out of an ETS Inclusive Excellence Plan to remove barriers, increase awareness and improve representation within the department. He also helped launch out lived-identity protocol across university systems.

Simeon has been a valuable member of the senior leadership team at UVM, and his strategy and vision have been integral to the university’s success during his time here. He’s a trusted friend to me and to so many of our colleagues, and we wish him the greatest success in this wonderful next step in his career.

Simeon will be on campus with us until early August. We will conduct a national search for his successor. A timeline and other details will be announced soon.